The Setup

Here's kdmade out at a craft show (with kdmom sharing a table). I kept the set up pretty much the same as last time, except I forgot the dowel that hangs across my jewelry board. Luckily, I had my wonderful vintage folding ruler (found at a yard sale for a song since it's broken - - but only if you intend to use it as a ruler!) so I plunked it up there and had an even better display for it since I could easily get my pins and hair clips to attach to it. Yay for happy accidents. It was a dismal day in terms of selling, but fun to bring everything out and see it all together:)

Craft Show Season!

Just about the only thing that can keep me from yard saleing on the weekends is a craft show. Tomorrow, I'll be taking kdmade to a local show with my mom (who for some odd reason still doesn't have an Etsy). Being so close to post-play, I feel like I don't have too much stuff to bring, but I think it's more like I don't have much new stuff to bring. Anyway, I made a new necklace yesterday which ended up to be a serendipitous mistake. I totally measured the cord to be double the length I wanted and so when I tried the necklace on it was loooong. I'm a short necklace girl (which, in all honesty, doesn't seem to be what most other people like) so at first I was worried that I'd hate it, but when I took a peek in the mirror, I actually LIKED it! So much so that maybe I'll make one for myself. But for now, this guy is going to the craft show. Kind of reminds me of lemon meringue pie.And for whatever reason, I finally dug into these wonderful beads that I've had squirreled away for a long time. I bought them at a bead show on the same day knowing they were meant to be together. I think it took me a while to make this necklace because I'd originally planned to make and sell it, but deep down I knew it would have to be for me. Anyway, I've recently reorganized my craft room (in big ways - couch out, real honest-to-goodness work table-that-I-can-stand-at in, all of my machines out and ready to be played with) and so I've wanted to be hanging out there and some projects that I've meant to start (or finish!) are calling to me. That, and I've had a thing for red all year:)

What I Did While Henna-ing My Hair

In preparation for our first barbecue of the season, I needed to make deviled eggs. Needed to. Being that I live with a man who hates eggs and all egg products (and who is an absolute saint for letting me get chickens - - arriving in a few weeks, but that's for another post), when we run out of egg products, it's really up to me to remember to restock. Long story short: there was no mayonnaise. So the homesteader in me decided to make my own darn mayo. By the time I'd found this recipe here, I was so psyched to make it happen that when I told Andrew that he needed to go the store to get enough vegetable oil and lemon juice (yes, yes...he's also wonderful because he'll volunteer to go to the store for me even when I'm making something that he hates) and he asked why he couldn't just get a jar of mayo, I silenced him with the look. I was going to make mayo from scratch, and no amount of sanity was going to get in my way.

So here's the result:Next time I might try vinegar in with the lemon juice since I think the store-bought stuff has vinegar and I like that a bit. It really wasn't too hard, although we followed the recipe to a T and probably didn't need to drizzle in the oil QUITE as slowly as we did. And we also used less oil - maybe about half of what the recipe says, but that could be due to the fact that I didn't have jumbo eggs so I used 5 yolks of our smaller eggs, which might have been less than what 4 jumbos would have given us. In any event, I'm keeping the jar in my fridge and plan on having a lot of egg salad this week since I have to eat the whole jar myself. I don't have a cholesterol test scheduled any time soon, so it's all good.

And I didn't do this with a head full of henna, but earlier today I went on my first yard sale outing of the season. I got lots of great stuff, but the highlight was remnant bolts of the loveliest butter-yellow linen and an open-weave purple linen.

And this sweet little pack of fat quarters. It was all about finding linen today:)

Tuxedo Ruffle Tank Complete

Yuppers, here it is. I completed it after the first weekend of the Sweeney Todd production (which was smashing, if I do say so myself) and then scrambled to find another project to bring backstage on the second weekend of performances. More about that project later, if it catches...right now, I'm piddling along and considering dumping it. ANYHOO, here's the tuxedo top in all of her ruffly glory. I'm really not a ruffle girl, and I thought I'd hate the crocheted scalloped edging around the lace details, but it's actually not too obtrusive and I like it quite a bit. Notice the reappearance of those great purple buttons...I'd gotten a bunch and was still all nutso about them, so there they are again. And as I'd said I would, I laughed in the face of blocking and therefore have this lovely rolled edge, which is quite fine because I have a little short torso and am not fond of too-long tops (when will this 80's revival of the tunic end...PLEASE!?!?!). The colors in these photos are a little whack since I'm pushing the good photo daylight hours here, but I've been away from my blog for a while so I needed to update NOW!

I know that my knitting season is almost at an end...I never really pick up knitting in the summer, not for any conscious reason...I just think it's too hot and there are other crafts to fall back in love with. This has been my most prolific knitting season, however (this sweater for Andrew, this sweater and that sweater for me, this tank top, and these smaller projects I knit for the holidays) and I have a lot of really great summer knits that have peaked my curiosity. So, who knows? Maybe this will be the summer of clicking needles.

For now, though, I'm going to sit outside and watch the daffodils poke themselves out of the ground.

Here Is Where I'm At

With the tuxedo ruffle top.Lace inserts.

It's shaping up well. I've knit one lace strap and have the second to go. I'm not sure how much I'll get done this weekend as I have rehearsal every night. I'm not freaking out about hell week per se, but fussy lace knitting isn't easy during the run of a show. I really need a project that involves miles of stockinette stitch and I'm in crazy love with a dress from the Rebecca mag that Laurel sent me for my birthday, but I ordered yarn for it and I'm not thrilled with the colors. But in terms of the tuxedo top, I'm happy with the way the lace pattern turned out and I'm fairly confident that I'm going to continue to be a knitting rebel and not block at all. Ha HA!